When Noah was born, he failed his newborn hearing screening and was diagnosed with profound hearing loss. I was surprised, as we do not have a family history of hearing loss. Noah received bilateral hearing aids at nine months, and bilateral cochlear implants at 18 months old.

Sawyer’s hearing loss journey began when he was a baby. He received bilateral cochlear implants, and his parents chose Listening and Spoken Language as his primary method of communication.

Teagan was diagnosed with moderate to severe hearing loss at 2 months. She’s been wearing hearing aids since she was 3 months old. She spent three years at WISE (from age 3-6), where resources were made available to her that she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Laura was diagnosed with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at 20 months old. Without the daily instruction of and the wonderful therapists at WISE, Laura would not be where she is today. Everyone at the school was so helpful and accommodating to get Laura the services she needed.

I knew as soon as we got the diagnosis that Zadah was profoundly deaf in both ears, that we had to get her help right then. Time was of the essence because we were behind already. We thought that we were getting the help that we needed but really until we got to WISE, we were not.

Margaret was born healthy and passed her newborn hearing screening. Life seemed normal until one afternoon when we were in the kitchen and my dad was holding Margaret and I started talking to her from across the island.

WISE helped our family by providing an environment for Lakynn to receive Listening and Spoken Language therapy alongside peers from passionate, highly trained professionals.

When Katherine was born, she passed her newborn hearing screening and seemed to be developmentally on track the first two years of her life. When Katherine was around 2.5, we noticed her speech was behind her peers.

Elsie was born into a family of typically hearing parents and two typically hearing siblings. We pursued a listening and spoken language communication mode to ensure that Elsie would have the opportunity to fully participate in the language of her family and the world around her.